Jajpur (Odisha), Dec 22 (PTI): A 24-year-old woman was allegedly gang-raped and her gold ornaments looted by three youths after they forcibly took her to a forest in Keonjhar district of Odisha, police said today.

The three were arrested yesterday from their villages in Keonjhar district in connection with the incident that took place on Tuesday. The married woman from Cuttack, who had gone to her younger sister's house in Jajpur district, was waiting for a bus to return to the town at Solei Chhak when one of the accused Subha alias Papu offered her a lift in his SUV, police said.

The woman was then taken to a forest at Ghatagaon in neighbouring Keonjhar district where she was allegedly sexually assaulted by Papu, Manas Das and Sujit Ghadei.

She was robbed of her gold ornaments and mobile phone and left unconscious. When she regained consciousness, she took a bus home from Ghatagaon-Anadapur road and later lodged a complaint at the Jajpur Road police station on Wednesday.

IIC of Jajpur Road police station Aswini Kumar Sahu said all the accused were held and the woman's ornaments and mobile phone recovered. The result of a medical examination of both the aggrieved and the accused are awaited, he said.